Presidio

Started: 2018-02-04 15:19:20

Submitted: 2018-02-04 18:33:23

Visibility: World-readable

In which the intrepid narrator explores the Presidio with his family after Christmas

Thursday, 28th December 2017

On the Thursday after Christmas, for the final day playing tourist with
my family in San Francisco, our tour group dwindled to five (my mother,
Bethany, Willy, Calvin, and me); Kiesa went to work; Sasa stayed home
with Julian; and my father stayed home to check his e-mail. (Having six
people in the group the day before felt a bit unwieldy; having five
people seemed easier to manage.)

We listened to the first act of Hamilton as we drove north up
19th Avenue through the Sunset, through Golden Gate Park, onto Park
Presidio Boulevard through the Richmond, and merged onto US 101
northbound just long enough to take the first exit to the Golden Gate
Bridge visitor's center. The parking lot at the top of the bridge was
closed to passenger vehicles to manage the tourist load, and the next
parking lot was full, so I parked near Fort Point and we walked up the
bluffs, past the decaying ruins of various generations of coastal
defense batteries, to the bridge overlook itself.

I've been here numerous times over the last two years, so I didn't feel
compelled to photograph the experience, just look out at the majestic
bridge spanning the Golden Gate. The day was bright and clear,
unseasonably warm and sunny for the end of December, and the tourists
were out in force.

We looked around the combined gift shop and visitor's center, where
displays of historical significance were surrounded by books and
trinkets, and Calvin convinced me to buy a thermos with the bridge
printed on it, though he couldn't articulate why he might actually use
such a thing, and was unwilling to concede the obvious fact that the
Golden Gate Bridge was in fact the world's most beautiful bridge. (He
insists on telling me that that obvious fact is an "opinion", and also
enjoys taunting me by suggesting that the Bay Bridge is in fact more
beautiful than the Golden Gate Bridge. He's getting too smart for my own
good.)

We drove to the new Park Service visitor's center in the Presidio, at
the end of the parade ground that formed the central axis of the old
Army fort. The visitor's center had a neat 3d relief map of the
Presidio, highlighting things to do in the area, along with some
interpretive displays of various aspects of the area. The fort was
closed and turned over to the Park Service in 1994, and the Park
Service, along with the non-profit Presidio Trust, are still trying to
figure out what to do with it. Some pieces are easy: the coastal
fortifications, and some of the more interesting pieces of the fort, can
be reinforced and interpreted. The Park Service has restored the coastal
wetland that was briefly an airfield (and still bears the name Crissy
Field). Some of the base was housing, much of which is now available as
rental housing. Many of the historic buildings on the fort have been
leased out as office space; the Officer's Club in particular has a
restaurant.

The Presidio clearly has vast potential, as an urban park to rival
Golden Gate Park, but as of yet it's not clear how that potential might
be realized (and without better transit connections it's hard to imagine
that I might be able to take advantage of it -- it's not easy to get to
the rest of the city from the Presidio, but the Presidio Trust does run
a free shuttle).

We drove a couple of blocks to the Letterman Digital Arts Center,
founded by George Lucas (possibly with the money he made after selling
Lucasfilm to Disney), occupying a small office park on the edge of the
Presidio. The most salient point, though, was the life-sized sculpture
of Jedi Master Yoda in the middle of a fountain in a courtyard next to
the lobby. (The lobby itself was closed for the holidays, but squinting
through the windows I could see more Star Wars memorabilia inside,
including what my guidebooks told me was an original Darth Vader
costume.)

Yoda fountain at the Letterman Digital Arts Center

Calvin was thrilled to see the statue (filling out our Very Star Wars
Christmas), and I had to admit it was pretty neat.

Yoda fountain at the Letterman Digital Arts Center

We drove to lunch at my favorite taqueria in the Richmond, Gordo's, a
hole-in-the-wall on a small commercial strip with great burritos. (I
tend to visit the taqueria after leading a tourist expedition to the
Golden Gate Bridge.)

Our final tourist stop of the day was Battery Chamberlin and Baker
Beach, located next to each other overlooking ocean on the south side of
the Golden Gate Bridge. The beach-front battery originally fielded
disappearing guns, and one of the guns remains (or has been restored),
which the Park Service operates in occasional demonstrations.

Bethany takes a conference call on Battery Chamberlin

Bethany took a conference call sitting on the reinforced concrete lip of
the gun battery, surrounded by iceplant, below the cypress trees
towering above the beach.

Willy took a walk to the north of the beach and discovered that part of
Baker Beach has been converted into a 'clothing optional' beach.
(Technically public nudity in San Francisco is allowed only at a
permitted event, but residents who want a place to let it all hang out
apparently have an informal agreement with the cops to look the other
way at Baker Beach.)

Willy photographs Calvin on Baker Beach

Calvin played in the sand (after a warning not to actually touch the
water, given dire warnings of rip currents at any ocean-facing beach in
San Francisco) and Willy pulled out his medium-format Rolleiflex camera
to photograph him. So, of course, I had to photograph them both.

Nana photographs Willy photographing Calvin on Baker Beach

And when my mother stepped in to photograph both of them, I had to
photograph all three.

(Fortunately for all our sanity, Bethany did not feel compelled to join
the festival of meta-photography.)

Aunt Bethany and Calvin on Baker Beach

We headed back home after the beach, to enjoy a quiet afternoon after
our adventures as tourists. In the evening we went to pizza at nearby
Stonestown Mall, then Bethany went to the airport to catch her red-eye
flight back to New York, closing our family Christmas in San Francisco.